Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Konami[1]
Director(s)	Hiroyuki Fukui
Programmer(s)	M. Nagata Y. Fukui[2]
Composer(s)	M. Matsuhira[3]
Series	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Platform(s)	Game Boy
Release	November 26, 1993
Genre(s)	Metroidvania
Mode(s)	Single player[4]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue^[a] is a 1993 video game developed and published by Konami for the Game Boy. It was one of the many games made by Konami in the early 1990s based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) series.

In the game, the player can take control of four Ninja Turtle characters to explore a 2D maze-like environment, battle enemies, and rescue the various kidnapped companions. The game borrows plot elements, character design, and art styles from various forms of TMNT media of the era, such as the animated television series and the various comic series.

On the games release, various publications GamePro, Computer and Video Games and Weekly Famitsu that it was overly difficult due to its large maze-like gameplay. Other generally positive reviews from magazines like Total! found it a quality game, but did not offer players anything new in terms of gameplay. Retrospective reviews have described it as an early example of the Metroidvania genre, with the title featuring key gameplay elements and staff that would re-appear in Konami's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997).

Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics in the 1980s.^[6] The series was about four anthropomorphic turtle characters: Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael who use ninja-style weapons.^[7][8] An animated television series arrived to television in late 1987.^[6] The original comic book series was not intended for as young of audience, leading the tone and character traits to change characters for the animated series. Rob Lammle of Mental Floss described the Turtles as now being wise-cracking characters who were obsessed with pizza, and their rival the Shredder becoming "a bumbling cartoon villain", while April O'Neil became a news reporter who needed to continuously be rescued by the Ninja Turtles.^[8] Nick Thorpe of Retro Gamer magazine said the popularity of the animated series lead to its version of the characters overtaking the comics in popular consciousness.^[6]

Radical Rescue's narrative involves the Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello relaxing as it has been a year since the Shredder has been defeated. As the three watch television, their show is interrupted by April O'Neil announcing a prison break when the newscast is cut off, leading the three to spring into action to save her.^[9] As Michelangelo rescues the Turtles, they find that their Master Splinter has been captured and that the pit of the mines main base of the Shredder^[b]. On rescuing Splinter, the Turtles learn that April was also kidnapped by Shredder.^[14] After defeating Shredder, the Turtles are able to rescue April, who says that now that Shredder is gone, the world will finally be at peace.^[15]

Contemporary video game reviews described the game variously as a platformer, a beat 'em up, an action game and an action-adventure game.^[16][17][18] Retrospectively, Radical Rescue has been referred to by publications including Retro Gamer, GamesTM and Nintendo World Report as a Metroidvania game, a portmanteau of two archetypal video games: Super Metroid (1994) and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997).^{[19][20][21][22][23]} The term was only began in to have popular use by video game journalists such as Jeremy Parish of 1up.com in the early 21st century.^[21] The genre refers to two-dimensional platformer games that map out sprawling mazes in which players can progressively discover new abilities and evolve their player character over time.^[24][25]

The player begins the game by taking control of the ninja turtle Michaelangelo.^[3][11] As game progresses, the player can swap between controlling a ninja turtle once they have been rescued.^[26] Each playable character can jump, attack enemies, switch between rescued characters and view a map of the world layout.^[27] Each ninja turtle has a different ability which is necessary to finish the game. Michaelangelo can hover in the air with his nunchaku, Leonardo can drill the ground with his katana, Raphael can shrink himself inside his shell to enter narrow passages, and Donatello has the ability to climb walls.^[3]

The game is set in a large open world where new areas become available from defeating boss characters.^[3] The game displays a life gauge that is reduced when an enemy successfully attacks a ninja turtle. Once the bar is depleted, the game ends. The player has an option to continue twice after this.^[26] The player can find health restoration items hidden in the game.^[3][28] These vary from health restoration items such as a pizza slice which restores the life gauge or a heart which increases the maximum capacity of the life gauge.^[28] Other items include ID Cards and jail keys which unlock various paths.^[29]

In the early 1990s, the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise was in a boom period.^[7][30] Video Games & Computer Entertainment reported that by December 1990, 130 licensees developed products using the imagery from the TMNT franchise.^[31][32] This included a TMNT line of action figures and a comic series by Archie Comics' series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures which ran from 1988 to 1995.^[8] The Japanese company Konami would capitalize on this, releasing several video games based on the franchise.^[7] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue was final part of a trilogy of games for Nintendo's Game Boy, which also included Fall of the Foot Clan (1990) and Back from the Sewers (1991).^[7][30] It featured the same core staff as the previous Game Boy games.^[20] Radical Rescue includes characters adapted from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comics and the line of action figures. The in-game character models are based off the style of the Mirage Studios Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic artist Michael Dooney.^[3]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue was released for the Game Boy in Japan on November 26, 1993.^[33] The game was showcased At the 1994 Winter Consumer Electronic Show. At the trade show, the editors of Nintendo Power magazine selected specific items they felt were the "Best of Show" . Radical Rescue was among their best titles in their Game Boy category.^[34] Contemporary American and British video game magazines and newspapers have given conflicting release dates for the English-language version of the game, ranging between November 1993 and January 1994.^{[18][35][36][37]} Both the Japanese and English-language version of the game were included in the video game compilation Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection (2022).^[38][39] The Japanese-language version has some gameplay differences, such as the map screen having more detailed icons.^[39][40]

From contemporary reviews, reviewers in the magazines GamePro, Joypad and GB Action complimented the games graphics.^[18][43][44] The GamePro reviewer commented that TMNT games "have always had impressive graphics, and this one doesn't disappoint" complimenting the size of the sprites and the "detailed backgrounds" while Joypad said the games had good quality graphics, the backgrounds were "not very detailed".^[18][44] The GB Action review said the background graphics gave "some feel to the locations" without obscuring the action and that the animation on the turtle characters was impressive while "bosses are bold and well animated" and difficult.^[43]

Various publications including GamePro, Joypad, Computer and Video Games and Weekly Famitsu commented on the maze-like structure of the game made it overtly challenging.^{[18][33][41][44]} Game Players and Joypad found the gameplay fresh for the series, with the writer in the former magazine saying "You've got to admire Konami for not dipping into the same old well every time — the Turtles were ready for a make-over, and players will be satisfied with the results."^[42][44] Other publications such as Maniac , Mega Fun , and Total! found the game lacking in surprise or innovative features, with GB Action writing that the game was "not outstandingly original" and "perhaps expecting a spark of originality from a Turtles game is wishful thinking".^{[5][43][46][48]} Two reviewers in Weekly Famitsu wrote that considering the limited hardware abilities for the Game Boy, the gameplay was within expectations.^[33] A reviewer in Mega Fun found that the level structure in the game was simple which led to a lack of variety in its level design.^[46] In the The Incredible NMS Review Guide of the Year included with the December 1994 issue of Nintendo Magazine System, a reviewer found that despite the myriad of new abilities, the game had "little variety and practically zero originality" and that it "fails to live up to the quality of the very first Turtles title."^[49]

Reviewers in Computer and Video Games and GamePro complimented the music, with Game Players magazine critic saying the "music is better than a lot of Game Boy games, but still gets repetitive."^[42] Game Players and GamePro both found the sound effects lacking, with the latter saying it was limited to boring impact noises outside of boss fights.^[18][42]

Computer and Video Games and GamePro praised the game with the first stating that it "could soon be in the top five hand-held games of all time" and the latter saying "Game Boy carts don't get much better than this."^[18][41] MANIAC found it more interesting in gameplay terms than the preceeding TMNT video games.^[45] Other publications such as Video Games , Total!, and GB Action were lukewarm, with Total! writing that it was "a highly playable and worthwhile platform romp, when it really comes down to it, it's not going to change the (gaming) world as we know it."^[5] and GB Action concluding that it was "pleasant enough but dull in the "we've seen it all before" mould."^[17][43]

In their overview of the metroidvania genre, GamesTM descibed that most games for handheld that adapated the style were low quality. The publication found Radical Rescue to be "reasonably good" while being plagued by "infuriatingly difficult" gameplay, specifically that it was too easy to be defeated by enemies.^[22] In 2011, Audun Sorlie of Hardcore Gaming 101 described the game as among the best in the TMNT video game series for either handheld or console.^[3] They found the game to be limited by the hardware of the Game Boy as its lack of color and far too large structure made it too easy for a player to get lost. They concluded that the graphics, sound, and challenge have "held up great" and ultimately described it as a "worthy addition to any Game Boy collection."^[3] Zachary Miller of Nintendo World Report said found the turtles looking exactly the same graphically, but said this was acceptable as the game was "packed with content."^[19] While Miller said the in- game world navigation was confusing and map was relatively worthless, he found its design as more compact and easier to navigate than the similar games Metroid (1986) and Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991).^[19]

Towards the mid-1990s, the TMNT experienced a downturn in popularity leading to no new video games to be released for the second half of the 1990s.^[50] Following the release of the TMNT television series in 2003, Konami released a few more new games for the franchise in the early 2000s, which Game Informer described as only having "a fraction of the success of the original titles from more than a decade ago."^[7][51] With the exception of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Danger of the Ooze (2014), other TMNT games did not adapt Radical Rescue's metroidvania gameplay style.^[52][53]

Sorlie described Radical Rescue as "something of a milestone for Konami" as it was a "discovery of a genre" which they would take advantage of some years later in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)."^[3] Christopher Totten and Adrian Sandoval, authors of World Design for 2D Action-Adventures (2025) described Radical Rescue as an "important step in the evolution of the Metroidvania", specifically due its redefined game loop of using an ability to explore an available environment, locating and defeating a boss, rescuing a character with a key and repeating said process.^[54] Staff members of Radical Rescue would later work on Symphony of the Night, including director Hiroyuki Fukui, who would be producer for the Castlevania game. Both game's had a similar narrative set-up, which involved presenting a game as initially linear, until the arrival at a fortress when the game reveals itself to feature new non-linear exploration-based gameplay.^[3]

• 1993 in video games
• List of Konami games

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue at MobyGames